Restrictions to Access

This digital collection represents original documents owned and stored at North Carolina Central University's University Archives at the James E. Shepard Memorial Library. The original physical documents cannot be accessed in Wilson Special Collections Library. To gain access to the original documents, contact NCCU University Archives.

Mailing address: James E. Shepard Memorial Library, Attn: University Archives, PO Box 19436, Durham, N.C. 27707-3129

Telephone: 919-530-6473

Restrictions to Use

This collection contains materials with restrictions on the use of content in publications, broadcasts, exhibits and displays, and online presentations. Uses of content beyond reference and research require the express written permission and consent of the University Archives at North Carolina Central University. To acquire permission, contact NCCU University Archives.

Mailing address: James E. Shepard Memorial Library, Attn: University Archives, PO Box 19436, Durham, N.C. 27707-3129

Telephone: 919-530-6473

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Department of Public Health Education at North Carolina Central University Records, 1939-1986. University Archives, Records and History Center in the James E. Shepard Memorial Library, North Carolina Central University.

Acquisitions Information

These materials were transferred to the University Archives from the office of the Chancellor of North Carolina Central University.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which North Carolina Central University assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Andre D. Vann, Shanee Yvette Murrain.

Finding aid authored by: Shanee Yvette Murrain.

Finding aid encoded by: Joyce Chapman, 2012.

Updated: February 2020

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African American universities and colleges--North Carolina.
• African Americans--Education (Higher)--North Carolina.
• African Americans--Education--North Carolina.
• African Americans--North Carolina--Durham--History--20th century.
• Durham (N.C.)--History.
• Health education--North Carolina.
• North Carolina Central University.
• North Carolina College at Durham.
• North Carolina College for Negroes.
• Public health--History.
• Rosenau, M. J. (Milton Joseph), 1869-1946.
• Schools of public health--North Carolina.
• Shepard, James E.

Health education emerged as a profession in the 1940s, and a concern for disparities in health status between black and white Americans led to the creation of the Health Education Program at North Carolina College For Negroes (North Carolina College for Negroes (1925-1946), then North Carolina College at Durham (1947-1968), and later North Carolina Central University (1969- )) in 1945. An undergraduate program was established shortly thereafter in 1948. The graduate program was developed by the founder of the College, James E. Shepard, with the assistance of Milton J. Rosenau, dean of the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, a program that had been established in 1940.

The initial curriculum was modeled after that of the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, and UNC professors agreed to teach the same courses at the College that they taught at their own institution. Lucy S. Morgan, a UNC professor who helped develop the program at the College and taught many of the early classes, served as the first chair of the Department of Public Health at the College. The first class had ten students: Georgia Barbee, Sankie Floyd, Beulah Rowland Hill, Erma Ellingston, Isbel Lee, Oscar Jackson, Annie Mae Kenion, Thelma Morris, Velma Turnage Joyner, and Mabel Walker. Classes were held in the basement of the Administration Building due to lack of available space.

The graduate program in Public Health Education at the College promoted interracial cooperation in the Jim Crow South. A journal club established for health education students at both the College and UNC met alternately at the Durham and Chapel Hill campuses despite harassment from other white students. Black and white students were assigned to the same field training centers at local health departments and in the community and students worked together on a variety of community health projects.

Despite similar training, students from the all-white program at UNC and the all-black program at North Carolina College for Negroes did not fair equally well upon graduation. In 1958, a national organization for health educators conducted a survey confirming reports that a large proportion of graduates from the masters program at the College were unable to secure employment as public health educators. Only 28% of the 82 graduates completing the survey were employed in public health, with another 12% teaching health education or a related subject. The most common reason given by respondents as to why they were not working in the field was "race." The difficulty that graduates were having finding employment in health education contributed to enrollment problems, and the graduate program at the College was discontinued in 1960, the same year that the School of Public Health at UNC admitted its first black students. Over the course of 15 years, the Public Health Education Program at the College had produced 104 masters-level health educators.

The undergraduate curriculum in health education continued beyond 1960. It offered a curriculum with concentrations in school health education and community health education, and, from 1951 to 1984, 395 baccalaureate degrees in Public Health Education were conferred. The Department was part of the College of Arts and Sciences until 2007, when it joined the newly established College of Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Source: North Carolina Central University: A History of Units and Programs from 1910 to 2010. Celebrating 100 Years of Truth and Service. Published by North Carolina Central University, 2010. Pages 167-169.

The collection contains correspondence with state and national public health education coordinators, departments, and professional agencies concerning North Carolina Central University's Public Health Education Department development and advancement, enrollment, fellowships, and curricula development; newspaper clippings documenting the formation, activities, obstacles, and accomplishments of the Department and its collaboration with University of North Carolina and the Duke University Medical School; programs and reports related to conferences and meetings held at the school covering topics such as child health and teaching associations; and curriculum reports, budgets, publicity, and schedules related to management and structure of the Public Health Education Department.